Victoria and Vancouver Island have a lot of musical talent, and Victoria Buzz wants to highlight some of the best and brightest local artists and bands.
Every Monday, there will be a fresh ‘New Music Monday’ article to help people find and support local artists and bands that are up-and-coming, well established or hidden gems!
For this endeavour, Victoria Buzz has partnered with our good friends at CFUV 101.9 FM, UVic’s campus radio station, to find and select the musicians and bands for this regular column.
This week, Small Pleasures are the New Music Monday highlight!
This June, Small Pleasures released their first full length album, Songs For Lovers as a follow-up to their first two EPs.
The band is comprised of Viny on bass and vocals and Nevada on drums and vocals. The duo have been playing together for years in different Victoria bands, but have really honed in on their post-punk sound with this latest release.
“With this record, we took two songs off the first EP and two songs off the second EP, and combined those with six new songs,” Nevada told Victoria Buzz.
“That way we could kind of find what our sound was and we were able to have something tangible and have a record.”
He added that a big goal with this release was to press the album to vinyl as a way of having a memento of this moment in time, and as a way of being able to sell physical copies of their music while on the road.
Since the last time Victoria Buzz spoke with the duo, Small Pleasures has toured across Canada, in Japan and even played in Europe.
Nevada says that with the number of shows and tours they have under their belt, the jitters are all gone and all that’s left is having a good time playing songs they are passionate about.
“I said to Viny last night, it actually feels nice to be playing now because we’re both having fun. It’s no longer as stressful getting on stage,” he explained.
“The past year was really important, playing as much as possible and figuring out how to do what we’re doing the best we can with what we have.”
While writing and recording the new album, Songs For Lovers, Nevada says that he and Viny were inspired by the process of embracing vulnerability, spontaneity and compromise.
“There was a lot happening, certainly in my life, when a lot of the lyrics were written and when we were writing the music and it brought out a lot of emotion, and it’s all a bit of a testament to our relationship,” said Nevada.
“I think there are certainly dark parts on that record and then there’s some pretty animated, amped-up sounds on there too.”
He says that oftentimes, the songs they write come out of spontaneous moments when they are at home, playing music in their living room.
“We’ll just start jamming, everything is all just very natural,” he said.
“Like with any relationship, there’s ups and downs and different emotions felt, and with the songs too, there’s compromise, because we’re two people in this and we both have to be feeling it or else we’re not doing it.”
One standout track on Songs For Lovers is “Mon Amour,” which perfectly encapsulates the spirit of spontaneity on this record.
Nevada says that this track was a last minute addition to the album and it wound up being the first single they released.
The duo had already recorded a handful of the songs and were practicing before they went back in to finish up the recordings when Viny started playing a bassline that piqued Nevada’s interest.
“Viny was just warming up and she started playing this bass line. I was like ‘keep playing that’ and just grabbed a mic stand and put it in front of her and I was like, ‘sing whatever you want and I’m going to figure out a drum beat,’” Nevada explained.
“That song came so quick and Viny finished up the lyrics in the studio. When it comes really naturally it feels really good.”
“Mon Amour” is entirely sung in French, and Nevada says it was a perfect choice as a first single because it felt like something new and fresh from them and it was one of his and Viny’s favourites to play live.
Viny says that this song felt special to her because usually Nevada takes the lead on lyrics, but he asked her to sing this one, so she did.
“I had no clue really of what to say,” said Viny. “However, while jamming these lyrics came out of nowhere and naturally, without really any explanation.”
She added that the lyrics that came out of her could represent the marks that a relationship can leave, not necessarily in a positive way, as it refers to mistake and pain.
Check out Small Pleasures song “Mon Amour” below:
To listen to the rest of Small Pleasures’ debut full-length record, Song for Lovers, go to the band’s Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music or Tidal pages.
Now that Small Pleasures has released the album to the world, Nevada says that the next step is continuing to play throughout BC, Canada and heading back overseas to tour, as well as working on writing and recording the band’s sophomore album.
Small Pleasures will be playing the Purple City music festival in Edmonton in early September, but locally, they are touring with Tebby and the Heavy in a three-date tour in Nanaimo, Victoria and Vancouver.
They will be playing at Wheelies Motorcycles on this run on October 17th.
Nevada says that other than that quick tour, they are taking a bit of a break from playing shows while they finish off their next record, which he hopes to release early next year.
Follow Small Pleasures on Instagram to stay up-to-date with new music releases and upcoming shows.
Related:
- New Music Monday: Kill Your Darlings release videos of live session at the Rat Shack
- New Music Monday: People w/ Poise combine poetry and music on unique EP
- New Music Monday: Braxton Glass records instrumental EP reflecting on life-changing hike
CFUV is a non-profit campus and community radio station that plays a ton of local music of all kinds across Vancouver Island. If you like to support local music they are an amazing resource with a plethora of new local tunes in their arsenal.
“[CFUV] is an incredible community/college radio station that I really enjoy supporting,” said Nevada.
“It’s an honour to get radio play anywhere, but I do think what Troy and the team are doing at CFUV makes them one of the coolest college radio stations in the country and I think that they really do care about the local community, local bands and the music scene in general.”
Tune into CFUV 101.9 FM on air or online!
Let us know what you think of Small Pleasures in the comments below!
